Los Angeles collects 950 guns in buyback event

Almost 1,000 guns — including 31 assault weapons — were surrendered at Saturday’s four gun buyback sites that allowed people to turn in weapons in exchange for gift cards, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck announced Monday.

The city also collected 476 handguns, 273 rifles and 170 shotguns, for a total of about 950 firearms turned throughout the city.

“The shooting in Isla Vista was a tragic reminder of the consequences of gun violence in our state and our country and redoubles our efforts to do everything we can as quickly as possible, to keep our communities safe and get deadly weapons off our streets,” Garcetti said, referring to the May 23 rampage near UC Santa Barbara in which 22-year-old Elliot Rodger left six students dead and 13 others wounded.

Garcetti said 27 percent of the weapons were brought in for someone else, and 89 percent of those who surrendered weapons said they felt safer after having gotten rid of the gun.

The weapons might have been family heirlooms “passed down from generation to generation” or “used in acts of horrible violence in our communities, but one thing is certain — the chapter ends here for these weapons,” Garcetti said.

“Each gun that gets off the streets represents one less opportunity for tragedy, one less weapon that could be used, that could lead to a loss of life,” he said.

The buyback program, which offers up to $200 in grocery cards in exchange for guns, is organized by the mayor’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development office.

The city’s latest buyback — the eighth such effort since 2009 — brings the total number of guns turned in with no questioned asked to 12,918, according to city officials.

Beck said “many of the weapons,” including some assault weapons, surrendered this past weekend are “illegal on their face” and “don’t belong in a civilized society.

“Unwanted firearms don’t belong in anybody’s home,” he said. “This is not about the right to own guns. This is about the need to get rid of the guns that serve no useful purpose.”

The weapons will be sent to a facility in Riverside to be melted down for a second life as rebar in houses and bridges, he added.

Beck noted the city does not check for identification or confirm ownership of the guns. “The value of getting (the guns) out of the house and off the streets far outweighs the possibility of their use in prosecution, because we would never have come into contact with them anyway,” he said.

The LAPD chief credited the buyback program, along with “smart” police work, for a reduction in gun violence in recent years, saying just under 1,000 people were shot in 2013, compared with more than 1,600 in 2008.

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“It wasn’t so long ago this was the gun violence capital of the United States. It wasn’t so long ago this was the per capita murder capital of this nation,” he said. “That is no longer true.”